


A Storm is Coming

by AslansCompass



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Season 1, Season Finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-21
Updated: 2012-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-12 14:12:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1188210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AslansCompass/pseuds/AslansCompass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They remember now. All of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Storm is Coming

_Flames raced across the floor, nearly roasting him inside his armor. He rolled to the side, keeping a tight hold on the egg. Maleficient's neck loomed overhead, glowing with the heat of her own fire._

David slams on his brakes. He stares out the window at the Storybrooke sign as life rearranges inside his head. James saying goodbye to his widowed mother, Midas' ultimatum, catching Snow in his net. And David, David Nolan, in a coma for 28 years in a town where nothing ever changed. Abigail/Katherine trying to convince him they were in love.

* * *

Ruby's wolf thing nestles in the hollow of her neck, cool against her skin. Just another day in Storybrooke, another day stuck with her granny at the inn.

And then wind, but it isn't wind, because her clothes don't blow and it doesn't toss her hair. It is inside her, blowing her thoughts away to make room for new memories.

_What used to be Peter, chained to a tree—she only managed a glimpse before Snow and Granny hurried her away, but the sight made her stomach squeeze and fold like bread dough. And somewhere inside, his entrails, his heart…."No. NO!"_

The soft pressure of metal against skin, the force of Granny's hand in hers—Red opens her eyes. The lampposts, cars, telephone wires overhead—are all new and strange.

* * *

He is Jiminy Cricket. It's like waking up from a dream, or more like seeing the answer to a math problem that has been there all along. Archie, this psychologist in a sweater vest with a backbone like soggy pasta, is Jiminy Cricket.

* * *

Who is this Mr. Gold? He'll protect her from Regina, but why would anyone do that? In all the time she's been there, she's never seen anyone else. No one even knows she's alive. But…something in the way he said her name makes her want to trust him. He's the only person who's said her name ever.

" _I like to watch the wheel. Helps me forget."  
_ _ **"**_ _Forget what?"  
_ _ **"**_ _I guess it worked"_

"I remember," Belle whispers.

Rumplestiltskin turns around, staring at her.

"I remember," she repeats. "And I love you."

* * *

Deep in the wooden shell, something stirs.  _Emma did it._  August thinks.  _In spite of me, she did it._

* * *

Henry's stories are her memories. Mary Margaret freezes in the middle of the road, overwhelmed by the rushing details. Her fight with Regina—no, not Regina, the Evil Queen—hiding in Red's barn, storming the castle, giving Emma to Charming to place her in the wardrobe.

"Snow."

It's David, and it's Charming and….all the broken pieces of her mind slip together, creating a clear picture. Twenty-eight years trapped in time; no wonder life seemed strange and empty.

The curse was real. And it was broken.

 


End file.
